Clytemnestra
Many millennia ago I was Queen of a faraway land, a great trading nation of the Bounded Sea, Middle Earth. My land was fertile and prosperous, and it’s people looked to me as the Mother of that fecundity and wealth. They were joyous when I took as my husband a great lion of a man, who would guard and protect me and the land I represented. Nearby my sister likewise was connected to the plains and pastures of a great farming region, and she took my husband’s younger brother as her consort. But he was a different sort of man, living under the shadow of his older brother had made him insecure and forever needing to prove his manliness. Her situation was altered by the arrival of a foreign trading party from far to the north east of the Bounded Sea. Amongst the delegates was a young prince of that land, handsome and urbane. My sister found in him all that she wanted in a man and when it came time for the foreigners to leave, she crept away with her serving maid, leaving the land, her people and husband to be with him. Her husband ran straight-away to my husband, angrily shouting, pleading then crying for help to bring her back to him and the land. It being the nature of men, their enjoyment of a challenge, of danger, their need to display their physical strength and fight, my husband was fired up and over the next few months he had whipped up support from not only the surrounding nations, but many others from the distant borders and islands of the Bounded Sea to retrieve my sister, to bring her back to the land and her husband. The frenzy of enthusiasm for this undertaking was such that when all the forces were assembled on the shore, unable to set sail as there was no wind, my husband was advised to make sacrifice to the goddess Artemis, (who he had angered by hunting a stag and then boasting that his prowess was superior to that of the goddess). He choose our own daughter, a little girl, who was bound, gagged and laid like a kid on the altar. I never forgave him for this sacrilege The men were away at the distant war for 10 long years, whilst I ruled my lands (and by proxy, those of my sister) in peace and harmony, taking a consort to maintain the balance of female and male energies. They were quiet years, the women working hard, but in harmony in the absence of their men. Our children grew strong and intelligent, though my son sorely missed the guiding hand and mind of his father. Then sails were spotted on the horizon and the depleted forces of the victorious army staggered into port. As soon as he arrived my husband began to swagger around the palace, as though he owned the place. As part of his spoils of war he had brought back a princess as his concubine, a beautiful woman cursed by the god Apollo when she spurned his advances with ability to see the future. My husband seemed to think she could replace me as queen of my lands! It was the final insult. While he bathed in the house of my lover we threw a net over him and murdered him, and then his concubine. It should have ended there, the balance restored to the land, but my son, I suspect emboldened by desire for his father’s beautiful concubine, appealed to the Goddess Athena and then came for me and my lover, venting all his anger and frustration on my body as tears rolled down his cheeks. But I was avenged by the Furies, who hunted him down like a pack of dogs, driving him insane and tearing him apart for killing the mother that gave him life. And so through time and space my spirit has wandered, seeking solace through artistic expression, until I arrived at Dakini Land on Paquin, and found the Companion's Guild, a loving community dedicated to giving others pleasure. It is taking time for me to find a productive role within the community, but I have time and for now am content to study new ways to give pleasure, enjoying the stimulation of new friends and lovers, in an atmosphere far removed from the court intrigue and back-stabbing of my distant past. Category:Characters